Floating Down a River

As Eclipse unconsciously floated in the center of a crimson sea of waves, the water all of a sudden went deathly still. What was once a raging river was now utterly calm and waveless giving it the appearance of glass.

Slowly a blue glow began to light up from below Eclipse starting as a sliver and then slowly becoming wider and wider until it formed a perfect circle of ocean blue light. At the center of this glowing blue circle that was two times bigger than Eclipse himself was, was another circle. The second circle was pitch black and unlike its counterpart that emitted light, this circle seemed greedy for light as it consumed any rays of sunlight that went near it.

Just a few feet below the floating and unconscious body of Eclipse was a singular giant blue eye. If one were to look closely they would be able to see the colossal outline of a giant shadow below Eclipse similar to a serpent.

"Weak." A powerful and ancient sounding voice echoed from below the waves as the giant shadow appeared to have lost interest and slowly began to fade back into the depths. With the disappearance of the giant creature, the currents began to slowly come back and quickly turn back into the rapids they were known for.

The currents dragged Eclipse's body out of the crimson stained waters and back to the more shallow region of the river as he floated downstream. Every so often various aquatic monsters came to attack Eclipse while he was unconscious. However, when all of these monsters got within a certain range of his body, the monsters caught the sense of the blood of the piranha monsters that Eclipse was soaked in when he was launched into the river and instantly ran away.

~~~~

A few hours passed while Eclipse was carried miles upon miles down river without incident while enjoying a peaceful nap that he hadn't had for an uncountable amount of years since he was a spirit. Over time a sound began to appear, originally starting out a small insignificant background noise. But slowly it began to get louder and louder and louder until finally Eclipse couldn't ignore the noise anymore and was torn from his dream.

Slowly opening his eyes, Eclipse sighed as he was floating down river on his back and looking up at the evening sky, watching as four suns all began to gradually disappear from the horizon. It was a beautiful sight that painted the sky a blend of blue, purple, red, orange, and yellow. Floating islands of various shapes and sizes dotted the skyline. A wide range of wildlife of all shapes, sizes, and colors could be seen swimming and frolicking among the clouds.

"I really am not on Earth anymore aren't I… It's kind of nice and peaceful, at least if you ignore the fact that every living thing is out to eat me right now." Eclipse said to himself as he thought back to his old and former life.

To be honest he doesn't miss his former life or have any regrets. He set his pc to auto delete and self implode if he doesn't log on within a week, so no worries there. He also doesn't have any lingering attachment to someone on his old planet as he was an orphan from the day he was born, abandoned the moment his mom had him from a love affair that only lasted a few weeks. He was always picked on at the orphanage and by other kids at public school causing him to become an introvert from a young age. The only friends he ever had were people online that he never actually met, still they were the closest thing he had to a family and accepted him for who he was.

"No, I did have one family member." Eclipse said to himself as he looked up at a white cloud that was partially dyed orange from the sunset. The shape looked like it closely resembled a little dog smiling with a wagging tail. A sudden current of wind blew by and dispersed making it fade into nothingness.

Witnessing this, tears began to fall from Eclipse's eyes until he rubbed them away with a river soaked sleeve. "Why am I crying over something like that? It was just a clou-." Eclipse began to say, but he couldn't finish his sentence as his voice cracked and his vision became watery once again.

"I wonder if you still got that stupid smile on your face wherever you are and making someone else as happy as you made me… Some people may mock me and call me a fool for protecting you and putting your life before mine in that scenario. But I don't regret it and would gladly do it again if I can protect you and your shining smile…"

Reminiscing in the memories of all the wonderful times they spent together, Eclipse continued to flow down river, lost in his own daydreams of the one person he truly cared about. This continued on for a while, but the longer he floated down river, the louder the sounds became. Eventually it got so loud that similar to how it awoke Eclipse from his dream, it once again awoke him from his daydreaming.

"What is this sound? I can hardly hear myself think." Eclipse thought to himself as the sound was so loud at this point that it blocked out everything else around him. Changing his view from the sky and clouds and actually taking in his surroundings for the first time since he awoke, Eclipse finally noticed what was causing all the noise and commotion.

As Eclipse was rapidly starting to gain massive amounts of speed from the raging currents that were only getting stronger by the second, the moment he noticed the origin of the sound he turned around and started swimming like his life depended on it.

"$&#@!" Eclipse screamed as he struggled to swim towards shore with all his strength. But no matter how much he tried, no matter how hard he swam, the shore only continued to get further away as he came closer and closer to the loud roaring sound behind him.

About 100-200 feet behind Eclipse was a giant waterfall that encompassed the entire length of the river at over a mile wide. The currents around the waterfall were flowing so fast that it felt like the water had its own gravitational pull that got stronger the closer Eclipse came to the edge. Giant pointed rocks cut through the water like giant teeth that would shred anything that would come into contact with them. Then there was the edge itself. When Eclipse looked out where the waterfall fell he was shocked to see a sheer cliff that fell at a sharp 90 degree angle downwards.

Just as Eclipse's mind was trying to process what he was seeing he was flung over the side of the cliff by the raging currents of the waterfall. At that moment the world seemed to freeze as Eclipse was sent flying through the air, taking in a sight that could only be described as breathtaking below him.

Around 3,000 feet below him was another jungle similar to the one he was in earlier for as far as the eye could see. The mile thick river continued on down below underneath the waterfall, cutting a path through the jungle like a serpent weaving its way through grass. Turning around while falling in midair Eclipse took in the view of the cliff behind him.

The cliff was a few thousand feet tall and made of various gray, brown, and black rocks. The sight was similar to an impenetrable wall that reached the heavens with the only oddity on it being the waterfall that divided the cliff in half. It was as if a part of a continent was raised a few thousand feet above the other half, forever separated by an invincible cliff.

After being mesmerized by the beautiful sight for a few moments, reality came back and slapped Eclipse in the face when he started plummeting down towards a quick and painless death. "I hate my life!!!!"

Racking his brain Eclipse tried to think of a way out of this, and could only think of two ways. The first was gravity magic that could slow or maybe even stop his descent altogether, but he didn't have enough magic to activate even the simplest of spells so that option was a no go. The second option was to use his wings to fly, but even when he fell from the sky when transported to this world earlier, the best he could achieve was slowing his descent slightly with his wings and they couldn't actually carry him and allow him to fly.

"There is a way to survive this current predicament that would allow the user to live with minimal injuries." A cold mechanical voice resounded within Eclipse's head with a mocking tone. "If the host apologizes and praises the system, the system might be willing to tell the host the solution."

"I hate this stupid system, it is easily the worst co-." Before Eclipse could finish thinking about the system in a colorful way, he was interrupted by its voice once again.

"Beware host, since I'm now part of you it would be wise for you to be careful with what you think about. None of your secrets or thoughts are safe from me. Not even your darkest secrets like what you had stored on that hard drive of yours back in your apartment." The system said, its voice dropping a few octaves colder in disgust as it mentioned the last part.

The moment Eclipse heard that his face went pale for a second before he had a complete change in facial expression as if he was a professional con man recovering instantly. "Oh mighty and powerful system, please forgive this humble servant of yours for their past transgressions and save me." Eclipse said while physically bowing to nothing while plummeting through the air to his death. "And could you also please forget about the hard drive?"

There was silence for a few moments before the cold mechanical voice resounded once again. "I will tell you how to survive this situation as your apology was acceptable. As for forgetting that one secret of yours… I wish I could but it's burned into my memory and keeps haunting me. I believe your old society called this PTSD."

Eclipse's face went bright red when he heard the system's response to his request, looking away as if he could avoid eye contact with the unseeable system that was part of him.

"To survive this scenario the host needs to learn the skill called 'Flight'. This skill is obtainable by high level mages that are able to surround their body with mana and use it to repel themselves off the ground. It requires massive amounts of mana to activate and consumes mana at a high rate while active which is why it is only obtainable when at higher levels." The system told Eclipse to crush him when he heard what it said.

"How am I supposed to use this method if I don't even have enough mana to activate the lowest tier spells of gravity magic and abyssal magic!" Eclipse shouted in confusion and despair.

"The host isn't able to activate those magics because they're higher tier skills. Flight is only a skill at the 'Rare" tier. On top of this, unlike other races like humans who are wingless, you're a part of a race that is meant to be able to fly as you have wings on your back. Races with wings on their back only have to input mana into their wings to fly unlike the other races that need to surround their entire bodies." The system told Eclipse.

"Beware you only have enough mana to activate the skill for half a second. So it is recommended you only pour all of your mana into your wings when close to the ground. It is also recommended that you try and land above the river to soften the impact even slightly more to further increase your chances of survival." The system said in a deadly serious tone for the first time. "I will generate a countdown for when to use mana and acquire the skill based on your velocity and distance from the ground, activate it at zero."

With that the system quickly calculated how long it would take before Eclipse would hit the ground not even waiting for his response. After a few moments when Eclipse was getting closer and closer to the ground the system finally began the countdown.

"Five."

"Four."

"Three."

"Two."

"One…"

"ZERO."

The moment Eclipse heard that last word. He poured everything he had of this new source of energy he only recently acquired towards his back. Flowing like a stream, branching out from his heart it reminded him of raging rapids. The mana quickly surrounded his reptilian-like pitch black wings with a faint gold and purple glow before it infused with the wings themselves.

"Skill 'Flight' acquired. Auto activation of skill activated instantly by the system through use of the emergency system 'Valkyrie'." The system told Eclipse while simultaneously activating the flight skill just a few feet above the surface of the water.

"Phew." Eclipsed exhaled a sigh of relief as he floated above the water staring down. After floating for not even a moment, Eclipse slammed into the water performing a starfish shaped belly flop on the surface of the water. Angrily swimming back to the surface with a stinging chest, Eclipse heard one last notification that made him extremely excited.

"Quest: The Great War, Host vs System has been completed, rewards will now be distributed."